


the book is closed (and the story is told)

by DesertLily



Series: Found Family Bingo 2020 [7]
Category: The Power of Five - Anthony Horowitz
Genre: Character Death, Character Study, Dreamworld, Found Family, Found Family Bingo, Found Family Bingo 2020, Gen, Platonic Female/Male Relationships, Platonic Relationships, Post-Canon, Post-Oblivion, Reflection, holly pov
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-18
Updated: 2020-11-18
Packaged: 2021-03-09 20:09:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,426
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27611882
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DesertLily/pseuds/DesertLily
Summary: Holly lived a long life; a life where she was loved but it was never enough. She would always think about the dark-eyed boy and Antarctica. He would haunt her mind until her dying day and beyond.
Relationships: Holly & Jamie Tyler, Holly & Richard Cole, Holly & the Five
Series: Found Family Bingo 2020 [7]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1889911
Comments: 2
Kudos: 2
Collections: Found Family Bingo





	the book is closed (and the story is told)

**Author's Note:**

> So you know how it's not-so-slightly implied that Holly wrote the Power of Five series? Yeah, I kinda ran with that! The title is from 'Laid In Blood' by The Mechanisms. FOr the 'scrapbook' prompt for Found Family Bingo

Holly never expected to find peace in her life. How could she when the world around her was full of fear and uncertainty? Though, it hadn’t always been that way. Sure,Boston wasn’t the greatest city and the UK’s government was questionable at best but Holly had lived a happy childhood. Her parents had been alive back then; people had even still dared to call her ‘Hermione’. But, along with everything else, that name had died away. Then came the day everything went wrong. No one had ever really pinpointed the cause - not really - but she  _ knew _ . She understood exactly why the world had started to fall apart.  _ The Old Ones _ . The Five had been sent away and for ten years, Nightrise rose and no one was really there to stop them. 

It was ridiculous really. Looking back on it, Holly almost couldn’t believe it had really happened. Five  _ teenagers _ \- Gatekeepers - had somehow been tasked with saving the world and she very much had a front row seat. She had never really gotten the best explanation and Richard never offered her the largest amount of details. She never pushed him for them, though. How could she? If what she had been through was Hell, then she couldn’t even begin to imagine what he had been through. He had stood by Matt’s side through all of it. As far as Holly was concerned, she was just a tag along at the end. She wasn’t the protagonist nor would she ever want to be. Holly was not fearless. She could have never done what the Five had done. But then again, could anyone? 

Life after Antarctica never felt quite right. She had seen and learnt things that made the world around her feel so...dull. There were days when that was exactly what she needed, but there were others where she wished for me. Holly wished to be able to dive back into that secret side of the world; she wished she had the chance to learn more. But she had resigned herself to the fact she never would. So Holly lived her life. She did her best to fall in love, have children, and live the life expected of her. But it never felt  _ enough _ . It never felt truly genuine. 

But even if she could never truly understand that world, perhaps others could. 

Writing was by no means her biggest strength and all she really had to go was her messy teenage diaries along with second-hand accounts. Still, Holly mapped out the story as she knew it. Perhaps the narrative was perfectly copied or perhaps it was embellished, but she wrote down the story of the Five. Whenever a part of the story felt uncertain, it was as if something were pushing her in the right direction; telling her exactly what she needed to write. She did her part in making sure they would all be remembered. 

The books were...surprisingly successful. They were history books; the real tale of dark fantasy and dystopia. Not that anyone would ever acknowledge that. As the world healed and rebuilt, it refused to acknowledge what had happened. It lied and twisted what had happened to the point that Holly even questioned her own memories. But she  _ couldn’t _ have made all of it up. She could not have faked the trauma that consumed her and Richard. Though, perhaps the books were fiction in their own way. After all, Holly now knew there was no such thing as a linear reality. Not really. Besides there was some comfort in the thought of it just being fiction; that the world really didn’t have the ability to become that corrupt and Hellish. EVen if Holly knew that wasn’t true. 

To her, the books were a scrapbook. A put together collection of memories and instances of people that had changed her life for both the better and worst. The original manuscript was covered in poorly drawn sketches - faces and places that faded from her memories with each passing day. Her husband had complained loudly about her keeping them; thinking it was childish to protect drawings of her ‘characters’ as if they were old family photographs. Though, he had always been a bit of an arse when attention was taken away from him. But his comments had made her laugh. In a way, they were sketches of family. 

Holly could never claim that she knew the Five well. She never got the chance to spend much time with most excluding Jamie. But even then...How long had she really known him? It had been such a small space of time but it had felt like an eternity. Holly barely had enough memories of her biological family to call them such but memories of the Gatekeepers? Those lingered in her mind. Even when their faces began to fade, they all never did. Like a handprint firmly on her heart, they were a part of her. More of a family than one she had ever had or ever made. And  _ God _ , that should have been a depressing thought. But instead, it just made Holly smile. 

Then came Richard. Richard Cole was her brother in everything but blood, and Holly would practically snarl at anyone who dared suggest otherwise. Neither could quite pinpoint the moment their relationship had changed from friends to family but it had been inevitable. They had only really had each other after Antarctica. They were the only ones that truly understood what had happened. 

When Richard’s nightmares grew worse, Holly was always there for him. When people called Holly a liar or mocked her, Richard was always there to defend her. She had been sixteen when they met, and he had done his best to look after her. She had always tried to do the same for him with her own varying levels of success. But he was her family. More than her parents had been. More than her husband had been. More than her children had been. Of course she still loved all of them. But none of them  _ understood _ her. 

The day that Richard died changed Holly. It was like a switch had been flicked in her mind. His cause of death was cardiac arrest during the night. He had simply...fallen asleep and never woken up. It was a peaceful death and Holly was thankful for that. Richard didn’t deserve to go through any more pain. But with him gone, she had lost her final connection to the Five; to what had happened. She was left alone with her books; the history that so many would always insist was fiction. They remained her scrapbooks of memories but she no longer had anyone to share them with. 

Holly knew the day she was going to die. She felt it deep down inside. It was three years to the day after Richard died. She was used to the pains and changes of age but that day they had felt so much worse. They had felt  _ heavy _ \- as if weighing down on her entire body. Her movements were slower and everything was just so  _ exhausting _ .  So Holly had prepared as much as she could. She had phoned each of her children, making idle chatter and reminding them all that she had loved them. She finished reading the crime novel she had been half way through. Then Holly began to wonder what the world would be like without her. Would her funeral be a private or public event? Would she get a short obituary in the Guardian due to her status as an author?  _ Would she be remembered _ ? Not that it mattered. The people she wanted to be remembered by were long gone. Holly was...content when she went to bed that night and closed her eyes for the final time. 

When she opened her eyes, Holly had what felt like a million and one different thoughts. The first was that she was  _ young _ again. She was in a body that didn’t carry the aches and pains of age as it returned her to her youth. The second thing was that she had to be in some kind of paradise. For the beauty of the world around her felt like something only capable of things. The third thing she noticed was Jamie Tyler watching her with an amused smile. “Took you long enough.” All it took were three words for Holly to understand. She had found them all again. She would never have need for her scrapbook novels again. She had her family. She was home. 

**Author's Note:**

> Comments and kudos are always appreciated or hmu @ desert-lily on tumblr!


End file.
